Who cares if VB is still a lush. I can't tell you how many times I saw Barkley drinking at a bar when he played with us.
Maybe JVG is wrong? Put in a 6'11 body and get more rebounds if the guards can't shoot. Let VB dunk and score right under the basket. Also, throw the ball more to Dike and let him get involved in the offense more. Just because JVG is the coach, doesn't mean he is right about everything.
You only saw a few minutes of VB. I remember first few minutes of Spoon was several air balls. VB can get more rebounds (he's 6'11) and score better right under the basket. VB can give us more rebounds and shooting under the basket since the guards can't shoot right now. Have Bowen (needs to turn up his offense) and Braggs/Spoon off the bench. Hang up Padgett. He makes great 3's in practice only and his D is bad.
JVG=New York Knicks. J/K. His problem is JVG has no faith in him and won't coach him. VB doesn't have to be like Strickland. He doesn't have to be a shooter. With his body, he can get the rebounds, draw fouls and score right under the basket. Just got to worry about his shape and getting him back on D. Only forwards who may be better at D than him are Bowen and possibly Braggs. Also depends on the match up.
JVG's no idiot -- if Vintoxicated had anything left in the tank, he'd be getting some trial minutes, at least. Something tell me that Baker doesn't try very hard at practice. For a guy with his numbers in previous seasons, he'd be worth a look if he put forth any effort at all in practice. We all have this little fantasy in the back of our minds of him coming to save the day by putting up some respectable numbers, but maybe we should face reality: Vin is only here to collect the rest of his contract money.
It is common knowledge that vin has nothing left. If given some minutes, or even the starting spot, he probably won't do anything. Back to the origional point, What do we have to lose? the rest of our 4's don't do anything either. The difference is, we know we are getting little to nothing from spoon-pad....but what if vin becomes a miracle? there is only a 1/1,000,000 shot but hey spoon/pad don't even have that.
VB wants to play badly. In an article- he has gone into details about his frustrations always having to prove himself even when he was in his prime. I think JVG is the problem. VB probably doesn't try in practice b/c of JVG and his "established rotation" which is BS. If he just coached the guy- VB can get rebounds with his body and score right under the basket. This takes practically no skills with his size. The only proven better defender than VB, is Bowen. Also depends on the match up. VB would be much better D than Bowen on a team that has a powerful inside game playing PF. Bowen/Spoon/Padgett can't guard those types on the mere fact of lack of size. Case is closed. Send JVG and Ewing back to NY. Ewing has already said publicly that's where he wants to be.
I agree, give him a chance . If it turns out like the Rod Strickland situation then don't play him anymore , but you've got to at least give the guy a chance to prove himself. We got nothing else until the draft or until Malick is ready.
That would be a gamble, there are only 7 games left and every game counts. VB didn't do much during his play time (certainly less than Spoon/Padget in terms of efficiency), we can't expect him suddently step up big time.
Thank you, finally. He needs proper coaching. He needs to be to the team what he is capable of and coached that way. He doesn't need to be put on the floor trying to run out to the perimeter to guard people wasting all his energy on something he is not capable of. Nor does he need to be taking jumpers. If he is put out like that, then he will look like the fool everyone is saying. He needs to be matched up with strong inside playing PF's of other teams. Have Bowen guard perimeter shooting PF's. Stick pesky as_ Bowen all over Nowitski and try to wear him out (if this is even capable, he is the hardest PF match up). But if you look at the normal situation of inside playing PF's- With his size alone, VB is more than capable enough of guarding strong inside playing PF's (much better than any other player we have at PF b/c of his size). He just needs to put his hands up in the air. That doesn't take much skill. Also, he has the skill to get a rebound (6'11 towering above our other PF's) and dunk or shoot it off the backboard right under the basket like he used to and like Barkley was famous for. JVG and his established rotation is BS. If VB was coached and put out in the game the correct way, then he would never be a Strickland upset. Strickland looked like a fool because he lost his shot completely. VB is not that type of player if he we used his capabilities to our benefit and JVG made sure he went out on the floor like that.
I still say we managed to escape sending a draft pick to NY for Mooch/Baker by secretly agreeing not to play Baker; God forbid he should still show some skills....er, wait: "skillz"....and make the Knicks look stupid by giving him up. Or maybe everything isn't a conspiracy after all and Baker just plain sucks?
You are kidding, right? JVG "won't coach him"?! The guy's problems are not that he isn't coached, it is that he is not young anymore to learn anything new, and he is too weak physically to be of any significance, and hasn't played in ages. And just because he is 6'11" means he can rebound more than Spoon/Padgett? Well, based on that theory, Yao should average 20 rebounds a game because he is 7'6". You are also saying that JVG might be wrong in thinking that Vin Baker has nothing left in the tank, and you are saying that he could be wrong. Well the irony here is that while JVG spends every single day with the team and has a chance to evaluate the players on the team, you have no idea whatsoever how badly/well VB is performing, and yet you think you might be in a position to make a better judgement on his abilities than his coach? I will have to go with JVG on this one.
Wt_? we weren't talking about guard negatives or positives. We were talking about Baker playing over Spoon and Padgett...not sure where you throw the guards in. You lost all credibility if you think Baker and Deke should have more offense and turn down the shooting of our guards. You want Deke to have more offense? Just because he calls for the ball? Have you watched the guy his whole career? Show me one year where he didn't do that all game long. What do you base your opinion on that Baker is a better rebounder than Spoon? Based on all you've seen him play? I think if he was, JVG would let him play. I'm sure VB and Braggs *want* to prove themselves. Doesn't mean they can do anything about it. Did you see VB get abused in garbage time trying to "score down low"?
i thought Baker had a pretty good game last night. Even when the game got close and we were getting beat to the loose balls, he never lost his cool.
How do you average 2.3 personal fouls in 4.3 minutes? 7 fouls in 13 minutes. He must be pretty active out there.
